Collaborative office space was originally conceived by Steve Jobs for his new Pixar headquarters in Emeryville, California. He believed employees who work independently are less creative than those who work together. So he designed Pixar to provide chance encounters, giving employees the opportunity to connect, collaborate, and create.

As more tech companies adopted this approach, they observed and experienced the extensive benefits of collaborative office space:

Reduced Footprint. Traditional office spaces are based on 250-300 square feet per person. Employees in collaborative space sit at benches and managers use workstations, thus reducing space needs by up to 40 percent.

Google Space. Google took collaborative space to the next level. Perks such as gourmet food, massages, and fitness facilities are bait to attract and retain top talent. This minimizes the need for and cost of staffing companies.

Work/Life Balance. Google Space has become so attractive to employees that they don’t want to leave the office. They eat gourmet food and have their dogs at their side, enabling them to work late into the evening.

Fewer Sick Days. Wellness has become a major component of the new office environment. Healthy foods and exercise areas promote wellness, reducing time away from work.

Innovation. Collaborative space fosters creativity. Since all companies thrive on innovation, collaborative office space has become a major contributor to their success.

Brand Promotion. While collaborative space is good for the employees, the design of today’s office space has become a showroom for the company’s brand, which helps to sell the company’s products to potential clients.

The benefits of collaborative office space are too numerous and influential to ignore. That’s why so many of the world’s top companies are retrofitting their offices accordingly. Contact Peggy Gallagher, your ITRA Global Representative to re-invent your office environment!

If your company is looking to make a move one of the biggest things to consider is location, location, location. Where your company sits is huge in not only determining the type of people and clients you attract, but it also helps define your brand and how the world sees you. There are many factors to consider. Do you need to be near the port, near the turnpike, near potential employees, or your customers, near your home, etc.

If you are a fancy tech start up that wants cutting edge programmers, you want to have stylish offices in the heart of Center City. The Work where they Live Strategy. And, where your employees can grab a coffee at Starbucks on their break, get sushi for lunch, and go out for a beer with their friends after work, all within a mile or so of your location. Central Business District of Center City Philadelphia is a hub for public transportation systems for those employees living outside of the CBD. All of these factors go into creating the type of company culture you want, a young professional, intellectually curious group of people that do their best work in an open floor concept office where they have access to their colleagues and maybe even snacks!

Now if you are another type of business, maybe one that requires mostly office space but a small storage, or assembly area with double doors direct to outside, or your customers, or you, and your employees live mainly in the suburbs, Center City would probably not make sense. Your employees are in a different stage of life, they want to be home for dinner with their kids, or able to drop them off at dance and soccer practice after school. Sitting in an hour and a half of traffic on 76 doesn’t make any sense for someone who wants that type of life. The type of building and even the furnishing aren’t as important as a central location near good schools, neighborhoods, and doctor’s offices.

2 sides of a coin, both great options depending on what your company and employee’s needs are.

Is your company growing? Will you soon need to bring on a number of new people? That’s fantastic! But are you prepared for everything that comes with doing a big round of hiring? Below are some practical tips and advice of what to consider when getting ready to expand your company talent.

First and foremost if you are getting ready to do a mass hire it is likely that you will need to look at larger office locations to accommodate your growth. There are many factors that will need to be considered when making such a decision and most of them will depend on the amount of people you plan to bring onboard.

Parking

If your new location is not in a metropolitan area where most people commute via public transit you will need to consider parking availability for your new hires. Availability of on-site parking or street parking are features to consider.

Open Floor Plan vs Private offices

What kind of office plan works best for your type of business? What office equipment will you relocate? What equipment and furnishings will you buy new or lease?

Lactation Room

Did you know that as of 2010 the Affordable Care Act requires businesses to “provide a place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion… which may be used by an employee to express breast milk.”? Since breastmilk is food a bathroom is not sanitary and should never be used for pumping breastmilk.

Snack Rooms/Eating Areas

Do your employees tend to eat out for lunch or are they health conscious and bring their lunch? If so you’ll need an adequate kitchen or snack area, along with fridges for storing lunches.

All of these are important factors to consider when getting ready to hire a large number of people that will require new office space. However the answers that will best fit your company will be directly influenced by your unique needs. The process will most likely take months to select the best possible building and floor plan for the future of your company but once your staff is settled and thriving all the planning will be worth it.

Work to Live. Live to Work. What is your business philosophy? No matter your motto why not create a space that will make work seem a little less like work and more a place you can excel at your professional.

Today’s commercial real estate trends are no longer looking for only traditional office space, which is readily available, but rather to find the unique office spaces, buildings and locations that will make a statement with a redesign. Oh, and for those that continue to lease and purchase traditional office space they too are reworking the work space into something more engaging.

What do we mean exactly? Since pictures speak 1,000 words let us show what some companies are doing to make their office space more appealing to employees. Not only do they look neat but many companies will contract with high end corporate interior designers to focus on elements of productivity, teamwork and positive energy in the designs.

For the companies that need warehouse space. Modular offices are certainly an option, check out the gallery below from PortaFab.

One of my favorite furniture design companies is Corporate Interiors, learn more about them here.

Choosing a location for your business is a big decision. Not only do you have to have a successful business model but also the staff to support your endeavors. Often times when working with clients looking to lease or purchase office space we discuss more than just the building requirements. Access to transportation, vibrant communities and many other factors that impact employee happiness.

As a Philadelphia Commercial Real Estate Broker & Tenant Rep. we LOVE Philadelphia. The History, People, Culture, Charm and the character of each of the towns that make up the vast Philadelphia Suburbs.

Here are a few Fall Events that happen in September that are a few reasons our clients and their employees love to live and work in the Greater Philadelphia area.

When renegotiating your lease it can be very helpful to have an objective, conflict free, tenant representative on your side. The tenant rep will have the appropriate knowledge and experience to balance the scales in your favor during the renegotiation with your landlord. They will also disclose who they represent in the potential lease renewal. And after reviewing your current lease and also current market conditions they can estimate, whether or not the prices in the market indicate the current lease rate is above market or in line with the market.

The upper hands that most landlords have when coming into a renegotiation of a lease are an astute knowledge of the office market and the understanding of the real cost of changing/moving offices. By bringing a tenant rep into the equation to represent you, you can be educated on the right assumptions to use, realistic assumptions concerning the cost of an alternative location, and have someone in your corner who knows the market as well as the landlord, if not better. Through their help you are more likely to get the landlord to sharpen their pencil to the greatest degree on the rent and any needed improvements. Negotiating a lease renewal is a process and an experienced professional can guide you through and assist in managing the transaction. A key ingredient to success is identifying and obtaining written lease terms from substitute locations. As we said it is a process and it takes an investment of your time and the Tenant Broker’s time. But can result in saving a company a lot of $$$ in annual fixed operating costs.

We’ve come a long way from 2010 with high vacancies and low rents. Today in Montgomery County Pennsylvania the trend line shows more demand for Class A Office Buildings than for the category of all office building types. Comparing Trend lines in the graphs below you can see a clear difference between the trend line for the average Vacancy Rate 11.8% and the Rental Rate of $26.10 per square foot per year plus electric, versus the trend lines for the averages for all Office, A,B,C. When all types of Office Buildings are added to the survey the trend line of the averages changes to a Vacancy rate of 12.1% and a Rental Rate of $23.32 per square foot per year plus electric. Of course there are ten times as many buildings in this survey of all different sizes and qualities. The survey of the Class A Office buildings consisted of 216 buildings. Over all it is easy to see that demand for Office space has continued to improve and rental rates are definitely on the rise. Put our expertise to work for you when faced with a search for an office location or a lease renewal.

Is there a relationship between Suez & Panama Canals, Philadelphia Region, and demand for Commercial Real Estate?

At C.R.E.W. Philadelphia’s Past Presidents’ Series Tuesday, May 12, 2015 held at the Philadelphia Sheraton Downtown a panel of amazing experts shared ideas and opinions to help the audience better understanding the linkages. CREW Philadelphia and its organization partner, Liberty Property Trust (LPT), and all the panel participants did a fantastic job. Here is a recap of my notes from the event: (more…)

When looking for the right space for your company it is very important to consider all of the factors. You may be thinking what are the factors and how can I be sure that I don’t forget any. The great thing is that you don’t have to worry about that yourself. This is the job of your realtor.

Your realtor will listen to all of your worries and parameters and use them to find the office space you want for your company. When working with a realtor your job is to know what you want so you can convey that clearly to them. Once your realtor understands what you want they will be able to find it for you and then get you the best price for it.